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Owner description: Hudson River School painter Frederic E. Church designed Olana, his family home, studio, and estate, as an integrated environment embracing architecture, art, and landscape. Olana, a National Historic Landmark, is an icon of naturalistic landscape design, with five miles of carriage roads and a Persian-inspired house at its summit, embracing unrivaled panoramic views of the vast Hudson River Valley. Today, visitors can experience an array of activities, from meandering through the 250 acre artist designed landscape, to taking a tour of the house and surrounding landscape, to viewing the changing exhibitions both in the main house and a gallery devoted to contemporary photography. They can see a 17 minute award-winning video on the property and a permanent orientation exhibit. They can also participate in a variety of educational programs in the Wagon House Education Center, including a free backpack program that includes a variety of projects for children.

Why? Because here is the only interior where every item of furniture, every painting, every collectible in every room is EXACTLY preserved as shown in interior photographs taken when Hudson Valley artist Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) and his family lived in this romantic Persian style home.Add the most superb landscapes, Hudson River overlook and intriguing family history, here is a must see Hudson area gem.

Ask Jim L about Olana State Historic Site

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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

A remarkable property including grounds, with tour. My only reservation, possibly unjustified, is that one comes away with no appreciation of Church the artist. This tour focuses mostly upon the house - its history, construction, habitation, and ultimate restoration. There are some Church paintings inside, none major?, and they are uniformly poorly lit. I believe that this is from a desire to show the house in it's original state which is more often than not a dark, Persian-Victorian affair. Also, some tour time was devoted to a touring exhibit from South America, not really pertinent to why one visits Olana. But . . . we enjoyed the visit and would recommend it.

Ask ChiHipster about Olana State Historic Site

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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

I was very surprised as I wasn’t sure what to expect. The mention is gorgeous and the environment is beautiful and very peaceful. If you need a peace and serenity this is the right place. Love the story behind it too. It belonged to a family of artists who faced big tragedy. I’ll certainly come back and i strongly recommend.

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Ask Vlad Z about Olana State Historic Site

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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

I was looking for something unique to do with a friend from the Lake George area while I was visiting home in Albany, NY.

I had very briefly been to the Hudson area four years ago and thinking it had a cool liberal vibe for Upstate New York.

I needed to find something to do for the day to entertain my friend and me. I looked on Trip Advisor and discovered Olana was a mere hour drive from where I was staying.

I read that tickets book up fast, but I was lucky to secure our tour tickets online the night before we went since it was for a Friday. Tickets for adults are $9 and you are provided with a 1 hour guided tour. We reserved the tickets online for free and paid for them at the gift shop when we arrived.

Our guide was good and told us some great stories about the history of the home and its owners. I'm not an art connoisseur by any means, but I did love seeing the paintings inside the house and learning about the story behind some of them.

I visited Turkey in 2013, so I have an appreciation for Middle Eastern style and art. The house has a good amount of this, which I really enjoyed.

I especially loved the architecture and design of the exterior of the home. It must have been amazing to live in this gorgeous house with the beautiful views of the Hudson River. I love how the house appears to have been specifically designed to capitalize on the sweeping views of the river and the mountains.

The grounds of the house are beautiful! It was chilly the day we went, so I wasn't up for wandering the grounds, but there seem to be some great walking trails. If it had been 65 and sunny, I would have loved to explore more.

The city of Hudson itself is really cool and has a great NYC vibe to it. I myself really appreciated all of the signs displayed by the shops about hope and messages of tolerance. It's a great little city with lots of art galleries and funky restaurants.

Ask NYCaliKara about Olana State Historic Site

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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC